Download 4 steps to get started with Account Based Marketing

4 steps to get started
with Account Based
Marketing
You’ve heard the term: Account Based Marketing, or ABM. And
you get the general idea. Instead of investing resources here,
there and everywhere, you focus on investing in opportunities
bound to reap the highest ROI. Marketing becomes far more
targeted and aligned with sales.
TRADITIONAL MARKETING
Key accounts tend to offer the
highest sales potential, which is
why we should invest more sales
resources in these accounts.
Yet marketing budgets are often
spread equally over the whole customer base, resulting in low ROI.
80% OF POTENTIAL REVENUE
ACCOUNT BASED MARKETING
With ABM you can make the most
of your sales and marketing budgets by focusing them more on your
key accounts.
ABM is gaining ground with many companies, especially IT companies and
businesses with complex products and long sales cycles. The reality is that
most B2B companies realize 80% of revenues from just 20% of their customers. Marketing to these key accounts is known as Account Based Marketing.
If you’re thinking it’s time to get started, here are four steps to set you on the
right path:
1. Begin by identifying your top accounts
The majority of B2B marketers fail to produce reliable lists of their top accounts. Doing so is vital. The key to getting a high ROI from AMB is understanding targeted accounts.
- First and foremost, establish the business value of your accounts
- Identify where the largest sales potential lies
- Establish where each account is in the buying journey
- If they’re current accounts, understand which products they have or have not purchased
Work together with sales and finance to create a list of high-profit target
customers and document the information you need. Your initial investment
in this process will enable you to make smarter investments, delivering the
relevant content to the right people at the right time and generate sales.
2. Create valuable content
Your ABM program will feature ads to draw target customers to content
published on your website. In this age of self-serve customers, your website
needs to offer a much heavier dose of useful content relative to its sales
pages.
You need a content marketing plan that becomes a roadmap to consistently
producing valuable content in the form of blog posts, eBooks, video, research
studies, infographics and more. As you create a content marketing plan, consider the following:
- An ideal way to discover your customers’ information needs is to inter-
view them. Also, ask your best sales people to create a list of questions they’re often asked
- Audit your existing content. It’s possible you have useful content in
various forms that aren’t published on your website. Even content on your website could become more valuable and relevant to current needs with some updates
- Create customer case studies when possible, and include industry
specific references in your content
- Communicate big ideas to establish industry expertise and become
perceived as a thought-leader
3. Use a targeted distribution platform
- Vendemore offers an ad distribution service where top accounts are targeted based on their IP address. Learn more about how to place ads on large media networks to be seen by the employees on your target list
- Target via social media. LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook advertising
programs offer highly targeted advertising programs
- Align marketing activities such as events and email campaigns with your
ABM plan
4. Measure your marketing efforts
With ABM tactics, website visits will come from people within the companies
you’re targeting. Your challenge is to measure and assess user behavior.
- Record ad impressions by account
- Use Google Analytics to gauge traffic and record engagement metrics from top accounts
- Set up systems with your CRM and marketing automation enabling you
to measure win rates
- Establish revenue per account measures
- Consult with analytics professionals to develop a useful formula to
measure sales and marketing costs per account
Informed by the type of analytics outline here, you’ll work with your sales
managers to create smart follow-up strategies to nurture and/or close deals.
ABM takes time
Be fair and understand ABM takes time to gain traction. If your sales process
usually takes over six months or more, resist evaluating results after just
a month or two. Gather metrics on a monthly basis, but give it at least six
months before you draw any conclusions.
Many organizations benefit from easing into ABM by starting with a small
select number of accounts. Because your content is such an important variable, you’ll refine your programs perpetually based on the results produced.
You may test different messages, media, and other tactics.
Want more insights into increasing marketing ROI with account based marketing? Visit our Account Based Marketing Hub for more inspiration and best
practices.